Below are two of the six issues OTOR was curious to know about. To read the rest, see Casey’s interview and see some quality photographs of the Australian click here…
On the moment that Stoner was destined for greatness…
MR: The second race of 2002 in South Africa. Casey was sixteen, riding a 250 in his first full season because Alberto Puig couldn’t get him a decent 125 so he stuck him on the Aprilia with Lucio Cecchinello’s team. It was a semi-factory bike and Marco Melandri – who’d win the title that year – was on the full factory Aprilia. Marco took off at the front and Casey just bolted and went after him. He was so over-the-limit in terms of the pace that it was only a matter of time before he crashed but I just thought at the time ‘my god, that kid has got talent, and balls’. I was a fan from that race on and we became good friends. There are a few guys that do special things in the smaller classes and invariably they go on to bigger things and he for sure was one of those. I couldn’t say then that he’d be a world champion but it was easy to see that he was different.
GE: So many people, like Mick Doohan, had talked about him before he came into the championship. I can remember Casey doing wheelies on his bicycle through the paddock at Donington Park in 2001 on what was his Grand Prix debut. There has always been this determination in Casey and at his second race in MotoGP at Qatar he was very fast, took pole position and then made the podium the next race in Turkey on what was a satellite bike in the last year of the 990s. He was doing things you were not supposed to do if you weren’t on a works machine. He always had bags of talent but for me it was the start of 2006 when you could really see that he had ‘it’. There were a few crashes that year but the chance came up with Ducati when Sete Gibernau pulled back and Marco Melandri wasn’t available and he hit his stride.
On the effect this title will have on entrenched team-mate Dani Pedrosa…
MR: I’ve been saying for a couple of years, and Alberto Puig [Pedrosa’s long-time manager and mentor] pulled me up on it a few seasons ago, that it is make-or-break time for Dani. He has not been lucky but he has been a factory MotoGP rider for five years now and he has got to challenge for the title. I wouldn’t rule him out, and ‘on his day’ he is perhaps faster than Casey, but the difference is that Casey can ride the bike when it is not right or the circumstances are not right…and he has made less mistakes.
GE: It means that next year really is a put-up-or-shut-up, especially with Marc Marquez waiting in the wings. Dani is still loved by the Spanish public but he needs an injury-free season. He was really in with a chance after Portugal until the accident at Le Mans when he broke his collarbone. Dani is quick but the problem he has is that he does have ‘off-days’ or ‘off-weekends’. A bad day for Casey this year has meant a third place.
